upstairs hall paint dilemma

Ever since we moved into this house, I’ve wanted to do a family picture wall in the upstairs hallway. My inspiration comes from some that I’ve seen online, like this one from Design Mom, or this one from Mod Nest. I decided on plain black frames, with a few white mats in the center, and have been collecting family photos from both sides of our families.

Here’s the wall in question:

And here’s the general layout of the frames, which my mom helped me measure and lay out with while she was visiting a couple weeks ago.

We even finally figured out how to get the paste off the walls so we can prime and paint… smooth sailing, right?

I was really excited about this color because it’s on their list of National Trust-approved historic colors, and it’s a very pretty cool grey-blue, which was what I wanted for this hallway. But in person, especially in the shadowy hallway (which gets very little sunlight) it was just too dark, and also too blue somehow — it looked like a cliche baby boy’s room.

Next try:

Lighthouse Shadows by Valspar

This one was too grey and borderline too dark, but I really liked it. Again, if the room had more sun, I might be picking this one for sure. Next up:

Tinsel Beam by Valspar

While this one was only borderline too dark, it was definitely too grey — in a big patch it sort of looked like concrete or the color of prison walls.

In an effort to have it NOT be too dark, and be more blue, we picked a new one that was definitely lighter but in the same family:

This was horrible in person – it basically looked way too pale on the wall — it blended in with the white primer, almost… again, I think because of the shadows of the room. But we remembered one other one we’d liked while we were there, so we went back for

Velvet Sky by Behr

This one is almost perfect but, again due to the shadows in the room, looks a little bit purple. Like… noticeably purple. And we’re definitely going for blue, rather than purple. We have one more to try out, the one we ALMOST got when we got Velvet Sky.

Eminence by Behr

This is almost exactly like Velvet Sky but more blue and less purple. I am so ready to have the right color and have this ridiculousness — believe me, I fully realize how ridiculous this all is — over with. Here’s hoping Eminence comes through for us, because I’m so ready to be over this bottleneck in the process and get going with actually hanging the pictures.

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7 Responses

Hi! You don’t know me at all, but I just wanted to let you know – I’ve spent like, three days agonizing over the Eminence – Glass Bead – Cumberland Fog – Velvet Sky dilemma! It was for a north-facing bedroom, and the color of the light varies unbelievably. There’s definitely something funny going on in the way they mix them, like the transition between blue and purple goes through some green and grey along the way. It’s very gratifying to hear someone else thinks Velvet Sky looks too purple. It so does. And your photo of wall patches was actually really funny. Thanks for posting this stuff!

I didn’t think there could possible be a way for Valspar’s Atrium Blue to be “baby boy blue” – I was SO thinking it would go the other way and be too gray. I’m now looking at the bathroom after two coats and I’ve heard “baby boy blue” from both my partner and my daughter. GRRRR! The rest of the bathroom is white with black accents (new tile, freshly painted wainscoting, etc.) and I couldn’t be more annoyed. It seems to change color every time I look at it! I’ll be investigating the “Love My Color” guarantee, and trying plan B.

Wow I am so glad I stumbled across your info on Velvet Sky. I am planning on painting my east-facing bedroom in Velvet Sky, with Behr’s Zesty Apple and Clean Canvas as my accent colors. Knowing that Velvet Sky hues purple is very good info to know prior to painting next month. I’m going to check out Eminence tomorrow. I hope it will go with the Zesty Apple as I just love that color. Thanks!

So happy all of that fiddling around with paint colors has proven useful for someone else even in a small way. For whatever it’s worth, we really have been very happy with Eminence in that hallway ever since.

I stumbled upon this post and my dining room has been Velvet Sky for 12 years. It is time for a touch up I still love the color but will also check out the Eminence Blue because I am painting the room next to it in Edgecomb grey. I may want a more neutral blue. Velvet Sky has never looked purple for me which is interesting since it did for you!